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Monday, 25 August 2014

Everything was lining up quite nicely. I finally got my old consoles
and games sorted out and I had an idea for a new book I wanted to get
stuck into. I drafted a few chapters to get a feel for the setting
and characters, and I wanted to put together a plan that would see me
attempt to complete a first draft in a couple of months. And, of
course, allow time to revisit some of those old games I’d retrieved
from storage.

And then I got struck down with acute appendicitis which f**ked
everything right up. I’m out of hospital now though and feeling a
lot better, so it’s time to get back to work. My new book – QOTSS
– is a science-fiction/fantasy/historical (possibly) supernatural
mix that’s just so bizarre it may just work. And although I’ve
been set back by a couple of weeks, I still intend to get a first
draft completed within a month or two.

One aspect I like about this project is that it’s split into
multiple parts each of which tells its own self-contained story. They
all interconnect, of course, and everything will hopefully fall
together at the end, but for now, it’s nice to work on what feels
like three or four smaller stories, each of which represents a close
goal to aim for, rather than a single, distant ending.

Saturday, 23 August 2014

This isn’t the first time I’ve played The Witcher, although it is
the first time I’ve completed it. I’m sure I’ve mentioned how
my previous attempt to play the game came to a grinding halt ten or
so hours in. There was a lot I admired about the title. But The
Witcher proved as equally frustrating as it did brilliant.

With hype building for the release of The Witcher 3, I had an urge to
go back and play through The Witcher 2 again, a game which I rated
extremely highly. But given my fondness for the characters and
setting, it seemed wrong not to give the first game another shot. So
that’s exactly what I did. And whilst I once again found it rather
tedious to play at times, in the end it was extremely worthwhile.

So let’s start with the good stuff first. The Witcher has a
fantastic setting. It’s a rich, living world, one with a lot of
depth, history and lore. It’s a setting established through books,
the environment and your interaction with others. And this is a world
filled with interesting characters. Even smaller side characters feel
like fleshed out, rounded individuals. The Witcher creates a
believable world, one which you want to explore and experience.

And this leads us onto the story. Initially a somewhat muddled
affair, the story of The Witcher expands and grows into something
engaging and thoughtful. It is told across 5 chapters, plus a
prologue and epilogue. It’s a story which presents choices to the
player and, unlike so many RPGs, doesn’t reduce those choices down
to simple ‘good’ or ‘bad’ binary decisions. In fact, you can
walk an altogether neutral path if you so choose, deciding not
to get involved. It’s a story which doesn’t treat you like an
idiot and respects your choices, giving you certain variations of
events depending on your actions.

Graphically, The Witcher still holds up well today, with some lush,
highly detailed environments. In fact, just compare one district of
the city of Vizima in the game with the entire city of Kirkwall from
Dragon Age 2. Vizima feels like a lived in place, one with residents
and businesses. As opposed to a lazily textured box with a couple of
barrels and a static NPC. My only real complaint would be that some
quest NPCs are clones of other, regular NPCs. In terms of VA and
sound, the game is great. Some VA is a bit dodgy, but on the whole,
it’s very good quality.

So what about the gameplay? Well, the combat system is a little odd.
It plays out almost like a rhythm game. It’s all about timing your
clicks to keep a combo flowing. It’s very simple and not very
difficult to do, but the real challenge comes in knowing how to
approach each fight and opponent. You have two swords with three
combat styles, plus magic based Signs and bombs. In addition you have
blade oils and potions to enhance or provide certain effects.
Combining all these elements into a single fight gives the combat
more depth than it may appear, although I do feel that it’s only on
higher difficulties where they really all do come into play.

I played through on the default Normal and didn’t really find
anything too challenging, aside from those irritating moments when
the game launches you directly into combat from a cut-scene, leaving
you vulnerable and under attack for a few seconds before you can even
react. Apart from a couple of Signs and some blade oil/attack
enhancements, I never really needed any of the various potions or
bombs to progress. So the combat system has depth to it in terms of
the mechanics behind it, but the actual combat in terms of the rhythm
based clicking isn’t particularly engaging. You get used to it, but
it’s not something you come to love.

So what about quests? There are loads of quests in The Witcher,
almost overwhelmingly so. Each chapter has several primary quests
along with many fairly substantial side quests, plus plenty of more
basic monster bounties to complete. If you do absolutely everything
in each chapter, you’re easily looking at 30 hours of play, maybe
more. This is a game with a lot to see and do.

So yeah, The Witcher does a lot of things quite brilliantly, so why
didn’t I finish it the first time around? Well, unfortunately, the
game has serious issues with pacing and structure. The opening
prologue isn’t too bad, but the first chapter is also the first
real test of the player’s patience. In terms of story and quests I
can’t really fault it as it gives a nice introduction into the
wider world of The Witcher. But the way these quests are structured
means you’ll spend most of your time running from one side of the
map to the other.

Oh dear. And this is where things start to get rather tedious. Things
don’t really improve in the next chapter and in some ways, they get
even worse. You’re conducting an investigation, speaking to
witnesses, gathering evidence. Interesting from the story angle, but
in terms of the gameplay it gets very irritating and dull as you run
from one conversation to the next, from one corner of the map to the
next and then back again. It’s badly paced, with plot progression
slowing to an absolute crawl. And this is where I gave up the first
time around and honestly, considered giving up again.

But I didn’t. I slogged my way through it. The next chapter,
thankfully, picked up the pace significantly. The quests were
structured much better, meaning it felt that I wasn’t just being
dragged from one location to the next and back again. I was actively
venturing out of my own accord, my exploration feeling worthwhile, as
I knocked off two or three quests on the go.

The way quests are
presented to the player is important. The way a game structures the
maps in such a way that doesn’t leave the player feeling that they
have to continually backtrack is important. Each journey should feel
valuable to the player. When I have to cross the entire map and back
again just to talk to one person it doesn’t feel valuable. It feels
very tedious. I don’t feel that I’m progressing or achieving
anything.

And this is The Witcher’s only real problem. But it’s a big
problem. Because as much as I loved the story and setting, there were
times when it felt like a bit of a chore to actually play. For
example, after the improved Chapter 3 we enter Chapter 4, which
although having some interesting quests, feels almost entirely
disconnected from the main plot. It’s a strange diversion. The main
plot really picks up again at the start of Chapter 5 and from that
point on the pacing isn’t too bad. But each chapter does feel
somewhat self-contained, and as a result, there’s no real flow of
pace from one chapter to the next.

So yeah, I had to really slog my way through The Witcher at times. In
the end, I’d say it was very worth it, as I gained a much deeper
understanding of the setting and characters I so enjoyed in The
Witcher 2, and it’s left me eager to get stuck into that title
again. But do I think it’s strictly necessary to play The Witcher
before its superior sequel? No, I don’t think it is, but doing so
will give you a deeper appreciation of the story, setting and
characters. You just have to be willing to work for it.

Overall, The Witcher is a tricky recommendation. I’d actually
advise people to play the sequel first, and if they come to love it,
then to go back and try the first game. Even then, you may find it
too tedious to stick with, but if you can find a way, then you’ll
probably come to love the series even more. The Witcher is certainly
a flawed game, but it remains a very deep, worthwhile RPG. I’m glad
I gave it another chance, but I can’t honestly say I’ll be
thinking about playing it again any time soon.

Friday, 8 August 2014

I’ve been planning for some time to sort out all the old consoles
and games I’ve had in storage. It was always a pain hooking up a
particular console as they were all stored separately and weren’t
easily accessible. So recently I took the time to get everything
organised into a system that gives me quick, easy access to every
console and the majority of the games.

So what does this mean? Well, with hardly any new stuff coming out
I’m interested in, it means more reviews of older games, including
some games I bought years ago but never got around to playing.

I’m thinking of rotating between the different generations, one
game at a time. Don’t expect too many too soon, as I’m
currently working on a new project which is taking up a lot of my
time. I should get out at least two more reviews this month though,
plus a writing update depending on how things go.

Monday, 4 August 2014

So I figured it was time to finally pick up and play all of the
Skyrim DLC. Despite my issues with the game, it’s one I’ve sunk a
lot of time into since its release. Over 500 hours, in fact. I’m
not sure where all that time went exactly, although the fact that I
can spend 6 hours meticulously placing every item I’ve collected in
a new player home mod, before scrapping it entirely and starting from
scratch, it’s easy to see how Skyrim can become something of a time
sink. So let’s start with Hearthfire.

In Hearthfire you get the option to buy three plots of land and build
three customisable homes. Which seems kind of neat, at first, at
least until you realise each home is identical to the last, aside
from any specific wings you choose to build. Structurally, and in
terms of decoration and clutter, each home is identical. Seriously?
They couldn’t have three unique homes for each location, fitting
for the area they are in? Plus, it doesn’t seem like much thought
went into the placement of each home, as at least two seem to fall
upon a random enemy spawn/patrol path.

Every time I fast travelled to
one in particular, I’d immediately come under attack by bandits, a
bear or a flippin’ giant! Usually resulting in the death of my cow
and/or horse. Wonderful. Also, some clutter in the home and outside
hasn’t been well placed, so stuff seems to float in mid-air. My
advice – stick with player created home mods. They offer far more
in terms of content, design, function, variety and quality. Oh, and
Hearthfire also lets you ‘adopt’ a couple of small, homeless
children you can find wandering around in some of the towns. Which is
actually just a little creepy. Plus they all have cold, dead eyes. If
you use a multiple adoptions mod it must be like something out of
Village of the Damned.

4/10

Next up is Dawnguard, which is all about vampires. Or at least it
should be. Do you like Falmer? Because I don’t! But if you do,
you’ll probably grow to hate them over the course of this DLC. It
has a promising start, at least. Vampires are returning, annoyingly
attacking people at random just because. They even killed that
blacksmith in Whiterun. You know the one I mean. She’s conveniently
placed at the entrance so I can sell her my crap on my way in or out
of town. Not any more though. Now she’s dead, which is frankly a
bit irritating.

So these bloody vampires really inconvenienced me and payback was in
order. Luckily, some dude was reforming a band of vampire hunters
called the Dawnguard. Sign me up! I got some fancy new togs and a
cool crossbow. My first mission was to investigate some ruin, in
which I met a vampire who didn’t immediately try to kill me. This
led to the option of becoming a dirty, skulking creature of the
night. I declined, although it’s not like the choice has any real
impact on how the DLC plays out anyway.

So far, so fine, but unfortunately, the bulk of the DLC is taken up
with an extended quest to find an artefact protected by what feels
like a never ending army of bloody Falmer. Where my vampires at, yo?
I got pretty bored, but I slogged my way through, hoping the
conclusion would at least be somewhat exciting. Ha! Everything is
wrapped up with a rather crappy final ‘battle’. And then everyone
just goes home. Meh. Dawnguard isn’t terrible, it just suffers from
a lot of the same problems as the core game. It’s shallow,
repetitive and although some of the quests sound interesting in terms
of the story or the lore, the actual gameplay execution is just a bit
dull. Plus, not enough vampires and too much Falmer.

5/10

Lastly we have Dragonborn, which is thankfully an improvement. We get
to visit a new location. Well, sort of new, because we already
visited the place in one of the Morrowind expansions. So I was
curious to see and explore the place again. Dragonborn introduces a
lot more new gear and weapons, a lot more new side quests (Dawnguard
only really had one) and some new enemy types. It gives us new shouts
and new abilities. It also has some new and varied locations.
Ultimately, the core quests aren’t all that interesting and once
again, the final battle is all rather anticlimactic, but it was okay
overall.

Compared to Hearthfire and Dawnguard, Dragonborn offers a lot more to
see and do, and quite a bit of cool new stuff to explore. Like
Dawnguard, it still suffers from the same old problems of Skyrim, but
if you can still find enjoyment in what it offers, as I do, then
Dragonborn is worth picking up.